


A Different Angle

by HammieSlice



Category: Oxenfree (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, It's really only Jonalex if you squint but, Jonalex, Non-Consensual Tickling, Oneshot, Pining, Some minor cuddles, Stupidity, Teenage Dorks, That counts right?, That's a tag on here? Hilarious, They're just being stupid, Tickling, Unrequited Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:01:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22567489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HammieSlice/pseuds/HammieSlice
Summary: Jonas knew there was going to be a few oddities to living with Alex. He also knew that he was going to be dealing with said oddities for the year he lived with her. What he didn't know was that one of said oddities would be coming into the living room to find her hanging upside down while trying to figure out a math problem.
Relationships: Alex/Jonas (Oxenfree)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	A Different Angle

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, I literally wrote this just so I could have the duo being stupid, and none of you can fault me for that! And yes, we have been kinda radio silent on our other Oxenfree projects, but there's a bit of a slump in the writing right now, so I figured I'd give y'all something to tide you over while waiting for updates on our longer fics. Even if they've been kind of consistent and I'm using it as an excuse to post this. Shut up I wanted them to be stupid.

Of all the things Jonas had thought of when he said living with Alex for senior year would be _interesting_ , he never even imagined that this would be a part of it. He knows she’s a little weird- gets a little stir crazy, has to work on her pop culture references so he can understand half of what she’s saying, but this is just…

“What the absolute hell am I looking at?”

Her head pops up from behind the opposite side of the couch, and Jesus she has to be bending her torso in a way that’s definitely burning her muscles with how her feet are propped up over its back, “Oh! Hey Jonas!”

“Okay, apparently all the blood went to your ears, ‘cause you didn’t answer my question,” He can’t help the confused kind of smile that comes onto his face. It always happens like this. Alex gets wild, Jonas gets too deep in his head, and they need to even each other out. “What the absolute _hell_ am I looking at?”

Well, he knows what he’s looking at now, since he has eyes and can in fact use them. She’d been hanging upside down on the couch, yellow-socked feet pointing and flexing on the leather, with her knees hooked over its back and blue hair dangling free to the carpeted ground as she swung her head back and forth. Fidgets and ticks she had, ones he’d learned about a few nights after the island when she needed something to keep herself occupied and chose his jacket sleeves to futz with. 

But this is definitely something. Upon closer inspection (and a bit of a lean on his part, since the place he’s focused his vision isn’t exactly close), he spots another confusing bit of the puzzle that definitely doesn’t fit. What looks like a math assignment, taped also upside down, to the far wall.

“A new angle.” Alex says it with pride, like she just earned a medal for an amazing idea. “Couldn’t figure out the problem, mom said to try something else, and thus. A new angle.”

Jonas’s smile only widens. “And you took that advice… _Literally?_ ”

“...Well, when you put it like that-”

“When I put it like what? Like Grace said try a different angle as in a different equation and here you are, Alex, taping an assignment to the wall and staring at it like it’ll give you the prophecy you seek?”

She can’t reach far enough over the couch to actually hit him, but a valiant effort is made on her part. A few jabs at his face, and then once she realizes it’s fruitless, starts kicking at where his ribs meet the back of the couch. Of course he’s easy enough in just grabbing Alex’s ankles to stop her in her tracks, managing to keep his usual rueful smile without outright laughing. That would mean she won. And she didn’t deserve a win.

Alex, on the other hand, is cackling by the time he has the thought to start tugging her up and over the piece of furniture. She’s red in the face, hands scrabbling for purchase on fabric that only gives when she grabs a stray cushion and thwacks Jonas over the head with it, “Hey, hey, hey! Foul! Limb grabbing is a _foul!_ ”

“She says, as I am six three and she is five six-” Another hit, harder this time, “Oh like that hurts-” _Me._ Alex gets a leg free, and he’s more than a bit winded when she gets a good connecting blow to his sternum, wheezing softly as he lets go. “Ow! Shit, God, you got better at that.”

“Well, I had a good teacher.” Jonas himself. It wasn’t out of any concern for her getting into street side brawls- she had enough scrap in her to get a few good punches in- but because Alex had asked about it. At first he’d been cautious, with his own past and knowledge, though eventually she’d bothered him enough that he’d given in. _What’s the worst that could happen_ , he'd thought?

Apparently, the worst that could happen was one Alexandra Strickland doing some actual damage to him. Which he should’ve seen coming. Chaos followed her everywhere, and Jonas has gotten caught in the crossfire enough that he should really know better. But he doesn’t, and he comes after her anyways. Though now they’re both catching their breath, Alex having pulled herself back into a normal sitting position while he throws his upper body over the back of the couch to rest face-to-face with her.

Wordlessly, the same grins come back onto their faces again, and he can’t help but notice the closeness. There have been moments like this since the island- the night she remembers better than he does- ones where he feels almost too familiar. Too intimate. If Alex has a problem with it, she hasn’t said anything, and he’s remained silent in turn. But the idea is there. Burning a hole in the back of his head.

After a few minutes of somewhat awkward and somewhat companionable silence, Jonas finally has the thought to come around to the front of the couch and sit down with her, making a show of swinging his legs over its back and hanging his head off of it. His beanie comes off in the middle of the action, but it has Alex laughing again, so. Worth it.

“One day you’re gonna kick me in the face, and I’m gonna be so mad at you, I swear.” The laughter is still bubbling out of her, “What are you doing?”

Jonas raises an eyebrow, and speech is a little strained thanks to the blood rushing to his head, “Oh, you mean you don’t recognize what you were literally just doing? Getting a different angle?”

“That is not-”

“Don’t even lie to me, it is, and you know it is.”

Alex glowers at him, but he can tell its fake. Or at least, he thinks its fake, before she makes a dive for his torso and screeches like a bat out of hell. It’s too fast for him to register, until he’s writhing around underneath her as she digs her fingers underneath his rib cage and arms, tickling him. 

He doesn’t think he ever told her how ticklish he was. Then again, leave it to Alex to find out about these things. Still, his protests and screams for mercy are unheeded, as she continues the onslaught while forcing laughter out of him.

“Alex- Alex holy shit oh my God I can’t _breathe-_ ”

“No escape!” She’s cackling right along with him, positioned precariously over both his body and the couch, “No mercy! You give today!”

Jonas is doing his best to worm his way out from underneath her, “We’re- Alex we’re-”

“We’re what? We’re gonna finally say uncle because it looks like that’s what’s happening.”

“We’re gonna-”

The cushion of the couch slides out from its usual position, and he goes right along with it, which in turn takes Alex with him. There’s a sharp thud as their impact rattles the floor, and the dull ache on his spine that’s definitely going to bruise later. Jonas coughs slightly, eyes squeezed shut as he tries to get his breath back for the second time within a few minutes. There’s something about Alex that leaves him breathless today, apparently, because once his vision settles again he has the piece of mind to realize their predicament.

She’s sitting up, straddling his torso while grimacing at angry red marks on the palms of her hands, while Grace comes up the stairs with the Concerned Parent Voice on. “Jonas? Alex, are you alright? I heard a slam.”

Fuck. Oh fuck. Not a good position. Not good timing. Never good timing, actually, considering her mom is probably halfway up by now and he still feels like he probably shouldn’t move even though he really needs to. Getting caught like this would usually be written off as something else, but there are- again, there are the thoughts- and Jonas just needs to stop. He needs to stop.

Alex, thankfully, saves the situation before he can overthink it further. She clamors off of him, wincing slightly at the movement of her knees (is she okay? He should check on her), and by the time Grace has entered the room they’re only next to each other rather than tangled up in one another.

“Just fine, mom. Fell off the couch is all.” There’s an almost convincing smile on her face, and he gives the concerned parental unit a similar look. Even if he’s staring at her upside down.

Grace smiles back, rolls her eyes, “You two are going to be the death of me, you know that? Sometime soon, you’re going to break an arm or a leg, and I’m not gonna be around to drag you to the hospital.”

“Sorry.” He’s apologetic enough about it. The pain in his back probably aids in that, anyways, and he mentally makes a note to go look for Advil the next chance he gets. Still, her mom starts downstairs again, shouting something to his dad about it just ‘kids being kids,’ and he takes the opportunity to push himself up onto his forearms and glance over to Alex.

Bruises are starting to form on her knees, where she must’ve taken the brunt of the fall, and he winces in sympathy despite the growing ache felt on his own body. She just rolls her eyes at him, and slowly starts to get up again, headed over to where the math assignment had remained taped against the wall. Jonas just watches. The scare- if he could call it a scare- was enough to keep them quiet for a little while.

Alex does her best to peel off the adhesive without ripping the paper or ruining the paint job of the wall, though once the job is over she seems more than content to go and lay it on the coffee table nearby, settling beside him again with that incredulous look still on her face. Jonas returns it.

Back to normal. Or, as normal as one can be, when he’s thinking things he shouldn’t be thinking and feeling things he shouldn’t be feeling. He can deal with it later. They both can deal with it later. For now, he just pulls himself up to sit beside Alex, and she wraps an arm around his waist in turn.

“So… I win?”

“Oh- Fuck off!”


End file.
